goldberg and the color purple. >> she didn't get it for the color purple. >> we have a picture of me and steve said mike barnicle for his performance in "binge minute button." >> he was so good on in that! he was so good! we have the picture! look at him flexing! you don't know because barnicle comes dressed so well. you just don't know he has all of that going on up there. >> he hides it well. >> he really does. that is the end of "way too early" for this friday. thanks so much, gang! >> good show. >> really good show. barnicle shirtless is the way to end it! "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> it doesn't rain much here in southern california, especially this year.

but when it does, it's very important to rush inside immediately and turn on your local news. >> odd pictures from sky 5 tonight on, the first of two major weather systems bringing rain. >> the raindrops here started falling a little over an hour ago and they haven't let up. >> it's a strong, steady rain. >> this line in the sand right here is where high tide was most recently and now you see the water is coming up over that. >> more than 2 inches of rain could fall in the area right into the weekend. >> i can almost guarantee that if you watch channel nine tonight, you are wet outside! >> breaking for an epic downpour here on the red carpet. >> it was a rainy day. the sun is certainly out right now but trust me, i was standing outside in the rain for several hours early this morning. >> well, we trust you. our thoughts are with you and your family. >> oh, wow. good morning, everyone. a live look at l.a.x.

it's friday, february 28th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on the set is associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson on the set here in new york! >> i'm right here. >> good to have you here. national affairs editor for "new york" magazine, john heilemann. >> hello. >> the host of "way too early" a lot of people defending your chest hair this morning. >> really? my mom set up a lot of fake accounts. >> they don't like chest hair? >> it's genetically. >> oh. thomas roberts is here. >> my parents. >> i tweeted it. it's a long story but people are angry. they thought i was dissing his clothing and choices and they don't understand nuance humor. >> it's not about clothing. >> it's about chest hair. >> it's about being --

>> "saturday night live," chest hair. >> thank you. in washington, senior political editor and white house correspondent for the huffington post -- he has no chest hair -- sam stein. >> sorry. >> look at the front page of "the times." so much unrest in russia. a total mess. >> we are going to get to that. my dad is on. did we not predict that putin would act accordingly after the olympics? >> and he did. >> yeah. we will start with politics, though. five years into the tea party movement, its leaders are trying to steer the message into the future with a renewed tone. rand paul is calling for an optimism to keep the movement from being sidetracked with comparison to remarks from rocker ted nugent about president obama. >> we have to reach out to more people. not just those of us here. it has to be a bigger party.

it has to be a bigger movement. there are times -- and i don't think it is our movement but there are times when people are using language that shouldn't be used. i recently criticized someone for using some of that language and i'm not going to bring it up, but i will say we can disagree with the president without kalg him names. i'm not saying that is our problem but i'm saying the people out in the public are taking away from our message. when we present our message, if we want a bigger crowd and we want to win politically, our message has to be a happy message. one of optimism and inclusiveness and growth and a message that actually brings up the people who are poor among us and long-term unemployed and find them jobs. we have to make sure that everybody knows that is what we are here for. >> "the new york times" reports groups like emily's list are fund-raising on a tax against candidates ironically wendy davis who has been called abortion barbie and alison

grimes who has been called an empty dress. senator ted cruz was less than enthusiastic about minority leader mitch mcconnell when politico's mike allen asked him to play a game of word association. >> this will be good. >> last one. mitch mcconnell. >> leader. >> that's a statement of fact. >> that is what is stencilled on his door. >> that's all you have to say? should mitch mcconnell be the senate republican leader. >> look. that is a decision for the conference to make. >> no. but what is your personal opinion about that sf is he a leader or a sell-out? >> i strongly disagree with the decisions -- some of the decisions republican leadership

has made this past year. there is a real divide over how you win elections. there are a number of folks in washington who think the way you win elections is you put your head down, you don't rock the boat, you don't take any risks. >> and that describes the current senate republican leadership? >> sadly. >> all right. so starting with rand paul, i guess i just wonder what you think about how -- what he just said conflates with some of the comments he has made recently about hillary clinton along the same lines? >> i think it's a great message. >> a great message. >> talking about optimism. again, the republican party and tea party movement and all of us looking inward like glenn beck did a few weeks ago to say what have i done over the past several years that may not have helped my cause? i do that not every few years. i do that every few minutes, you know? and i need to do that every few minutes.

but, listen. rand paul is singing my song. i love what he is saying. i've always said, let's not get distracted by resentments against the president or resentments against our on political adversaries. focus on the message and make it a positive message and explain to americans why the conservative message is actually going to bring working and middle class voters to a better place. so i love what rand said. >> well, i liked what he said too but i wonder, gene, given the fact -- >> can i say one other thing quickly, meek? >> uh-huh. >> i'm missing the most important point. if he is saying that to a "the new york times" editorial board, that's a safe to say that. he is actually going in and speaking to a group of tea party patriots that didn't -- may not, some people, may not have wanted to hear that message because they thought, oh, he is selling out to mainstreet republicans or

whatever, et cetera. so there is courage in him saying it where he said it, where he could have been booed. >> that's a great point. so why is that a courageous thing for him to do? the reason is that so much of the energy from the right in recent years has been fueled by the sort of anger and resentment and, look. people have appealed to that and kind of, you know, whipped that up. and so i think his message now is right, but it's going to, you know, it's going to take more than one speech to kind of take all of that back. >> john heilemann, has he been a part of that message and should the calf i don't think in his speech been we have all been guilty of making remarks that are perhaps over the line and you got to on turn it around? >> he is talking about -- i'm talking about bill and hillary. >> yeah, and monica lewinsky and all of that. i thought it was very sexist if we are talking about abortion barbie and an empty dress. >> but he didn't say that.

he didn't use those quotes. i don't think rand paul has been over the top with most of his language. i don't think it makes sense to relitigate. >> he didn't use those quotes. >> to relitigate the clinton wars from '98 and '99 but rand has been set apart, whether you agree with him or don't agree with him on things, rand has been set apart from, let's say, some of the talk show radio hosts who have said really inflammatory things. >> he is walking a pretty interesting line right now. . i think for him, mika's criticisms, notwithstanding, i think it's been a pretty good couple of months for rand paul and he has walked this line between doing some things like the thing you're talking about, mika, where he is clearly still -- he's a republican, he has to play a republican primary and trying to do things over there that appeal to the base and, obviously, taking a bunch of positions that are fascinating in the sense they are to the left of many democrats on issues like privacy and on issues like the drone wars and on drugs. he looks to me like a guy who is trying to figure out how you win a republican primary and still

are able to compete in the general election. it's a fascinating contrast with ted cruz who is struggling for oxygen right now and is still very much in that box of a guy who is playing -- just playing for the republican primary and has done nothing over the course of last year, and not yesterday, where he was out in public both at the politico breakfast and that tea party patriot thing, sti singing just to the republican choir. >> sam, what do you make of all of that. rand paul would not name drop ted nugent specifically but he made the reference to ted nugent and the language he had used in the past that he wants to try to avoid as they make the tent bigger. they are going with people with tattoos and don't have tattoos and he said people with beards and no beards and short people, tall people, chest hair, people that don't have chest hair. >> what about women? >> we are really obsessed with chest hair this morning. i don't know.

from what i've observed, at least a little bit, there has been a sort of a boomerang among the republican party, people who understand you actually want to win a race. i think for rand paul and for others, they look back and they say, well, we could have potentially had a senator in missouri, in indiana, potentially nevada. certainly delaware if we either ran better candidates or the candidates that we ran were more disciplined in the rhetoric. i think there is some merit to that. i happen to also believe that policy has played a role. certainly you can say and convincingly say if you just take candidates that weren't so out there rah torically you stand a better chance. rand paul encapsulated that yesterday and i think he is looking forward to 2014 and 2016 and say we got to be smarter about it. >> we got to win. >> i tell you something else. sam said something interesting

and talked about rhetoric that is inflammatory. my argument since the day barack obama has been elected and wrote a book after barack obama got elected, i said would you be conservative in three ways? one, at home. because george w. bush wasn't conservative at home. we spent ourselves into debt. we need to be conservative abroad. we have not been that. we have engaged in military adventurism. then i said the third thing and didn't get people quite as excited at the beginning of the obama administration and third, it's in my book i wrote in 2009, we have to be concerned with our rhetoric. what i meant by that, conservative with a small c. not being inflammatory because we have it backwards. i always say, in my argument for ever has been, you win presidential elections by being conservative ideologically and moderate temperamentally. we have been the opposite and moderate as i define moderate. big spending moderate.

we have been moderate ideologically. we have spent too much and temperamental temperamentally, we have been harsh. style matters in politics. rhetoric matters in politic. there is a reason harry reid is still majority leader of the senate and it's because we had inflammatory senate candidates who ran stupid campaigns who were political amateurs, who didn't know when to keep their mouth shut. >> well, that is my question, because you have been saying this for years and actually doing it. i just wonder if -- i think i'm outnumbered here on the rand paul issue and i'm wondering how you think ted cruz did in that mike allen interview because he seemed to be struggling about something to say about mitch mcconnell. it's not that hard. as far as rand paul is concerned, has he been a part of this sort of inflammatory right? should he have included himself in saying we need to turn over? because it's one thing for you to say it and i personal think,

especially as it pertains to women, it's another thing for him to do. >> rand paul has not been -- i'm just going through -- flipping through my own note cards about republicans that have said things that have made me gasp and said this is going to kill us with swing voters. rand paul doesn't do that. i don't understand his strategy sometimes. >> he kind of did it once a long time ago when he questioned the constitutionality or the civil rights act but that was a while ago but he did. >> before he got elected, right, exactly. that was one of those times -- and really quickly, sam, i'll go to you here. >> sure. >> i think i have gone from being with everybody on ted cruz six months ago where i just thought what he was doing was terrible for the republican party to now understanding and agreeing and actually being quite comfortable with just about everything i had seen us play flip some with ted cruz because i was, sam stein, i was, i still am, a republican that is

very uncomfortable with the republican establishment in washington, d.c. >> sure. >> that has, you know, over the past decade, helped spin us into bankruptcy and pass a 7 trillion dollar medicare plan without paying a dime of it and allowed military spending and domestic spending to explode and entitlement spending to explode. i think everybody expects when we play a clip of ted cruz for me to go how could ted cruz say that mitch mcconnell is not the greatest majority leader ever? for guys like myself that got into congress because they believed in less government and believed in fighting the establishment on both sides, i'm quite comfortable what is he saying right now. >> sure. >> than where he was six months ago. >> i think the big question always when it comes to assessing how these people are doing, when do they choose to fold their hands and choose to

say i've gotten as much as i can. i keep going back to the government shutdown debate where ted cruz, by the end of that, was virtually on an island saying we have to keep going forward, we shouldn't fold, we have them right where we want them. rand pall who we are contrasting him to today was out there saying we need to recognize this is a losing game. that is not a policy consideration but a temperamental consideration well. i think we are getting to rand paul has a more better astute sense what actually can be done in the context of the congress and ted cruz that -- has built this conservative for republicans to buy into if you have the will power you can shape whatever upts. i think that doesn't work. i think he is selling the conservatives a false bag of goods. >> i think conservatives, you look at the polls and you can see which one of these young senators have risen. i guess that is how we wrap this up this morning. in 2010, you had three young senators that people thought

were the next leaders of the conservative movement. rand paul, marco rubio, and ted cruz. right now, if you look at the polls, it's not even close. >> not close close. >> rand paul has won this intramural battle by a country mile. >> i think in the case of ted cruz, marco rubio is a whole separate set of problems. >> marco is -- >> the problem for ted cruz right now he is all tactics and to your point, joe, his criticism of the republican leadership resonates with a lot of people in the republican party but what he has not done and what rand paul has done effectively is lay out an actual vision what he believes in affirmatively. we could talk about rand paul. we know where he is headed and it's interesting. you might agree or disagree with it but it's interesting. most people think of ted cruz as a bundle. tactics but we don't know what his possible vision of conservativism is and he will not be a big national player until we know what it is. >> pit the younger player?

>> i could try to pretend to be john meacham but i'm not. >> yes, yes, yes. what do we have? >> one more story i want to get in this block. a new atrophy of text messages relieved in the george washington bridge scandal shows more indicative language between david wildstein and former deputy chief of staff bridget annanan kelly. they discuss -- sent kelly a photo of the religious leader. wildstein said the rabbi has officially pissed me off. kelly responding, clearly, we can't cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we? wildstein wrote back, flights to tel aviv all mysteriously delayed.

served on the new jersey israeli commission. still the contexts don't correctly connect the government himself. "the washington post" points out a recent town hall meetings with the governor not one person has brought up the lane closures. i'd say those texts are bad. >> what the texts show is the governor, even if the governor is a mile away from this scandal when it's all all over, he is going to have to explain why he put such people around him. >> because they were doing it. it's proved now this was -- >> right. so he is going to have to at least explain that. but chris brings up a point a wrote last week in a column. chris christie is holding all of these town hall meetings and they are open to the public and people are coming in with signs that say resign and they are

tough and pushing him on sandy and pushing him here and there. not one person, not one new jersey resident who is asking all of these tough questions of him have not brought up this bridge scandal. not one of them. >> are these town halls opened to the press? >> yeah. they should be. >> we were talking the other day about the poll about christie's numbers and he was down to like 49 or something but he is still above water in terms of popular or unpopular. so i think probably new jersey residents, you know, they get it. they get what happened in the traffic scandal as far as we know now. maybe waiting for the next shoe to drop. maybe they have heard a lot about it. >> they have heard so much about it, i do really think, sam, there has been such an overkill on this story that new jersey residents are like, ug, enough. when am i going to get my sandy relief? when are you going to, you know, help me get my business back open? when am i going to get my house,

you know, reshingled? when is that coming? >> i agree with that. i think in new jersey, actually, they have asked these questions at the -- at these open town halls. it's much more focused, if there are questions, much more focused on sandy relief and i think that resonates with them a lot more because it means a lot more to them. it's tangible money in their communities. you know, their lives are depending on making sure this is executed well. but you don't pick on rabbis. as your jewish correspondent this is insane and i challenge chris christie to hold the next town hall at a temple in new jersey. >> that would be nice if they showed up since they are covering the story. >> you'll take pictures, sam, of course, of a child circumcised. >> oh, no! that's not what i did! you're misleading your viewers! >> and weeded it out. >> i did not do that! >> and weeded it out. >> that is shameful.

>> like a scene from "mrs. doubtfire." >> where did this go? >> very excited to have rick stengel, our next guest. i wonder if your father is going to take on your brother? >> it's good we didn't have them on together is i'll say that. reverend al sharpton. and a.o. scott will preview the academy awards. first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> bill, we are heading out to l.a. for the weekend. how hard is it going to be to get into l.a. this afternoon? >> it will be difficult. it will be a bumpy ride. the rain will probably be ending this afternoon but you'll be bouncing around. >> it's going to be really rough getting out? so that is fine. but when we come back on monday in new york, that will be cool, right? >> that will be easy.

probably only be 8, 12 inches of snow and no big de. >> great. >> put a plow on the front of the plane. >> i think i'm going to move to santa fe. >> who places i wouldn't want to fly sunday and monday. i wouldn't want to fly to l.a. today and i wouldn't want to fly back to new york monday. >> bingo! >> yes! >> i'm a winner! >> big winner. talk about the big tropical storm going across the country. right off the west coast now. heavy rain at this hour. in the middle of the night over in california, we got half an inch in l.a. and it's pouring up in san francisco right now. that is what they need. we don't want the mudslides, of course. in the east probably the coldest morning you're going to see from the northeast to the great lakes until next winter. the windchill right now is negative 8 in boston. negative 8 in chicago. and this cold blast is going to lead to that west coast storm going across the country and this is how it's going to play out. sunday, it looks like an ice storm. areas from oklahoma, arkansas, into kentucky. snow on the northern side of that. this white on this map showing where the snowstorm is going to

be. it could be heavy snow. we are talking as much as 6 to 10 inches and some locations close to a foot. that's indianapolis and pittsburgh and on monday that will be areas like philadelphia and new york city. so if you can avoid your travel plans in the northeast, especially southern new england and the mid-atlantic monday, do so now. a lot of people will be changing your flights probably over the weekend. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ roll with it baby just roll with it baby ♪

"stubborn love" by the lumineers did you get my email? i did. so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen.

♪ we were doing so well. joe is very nicely dressed, except he didn't have shoes. let's take a look now at the morning papers. san jose mercury news. a court ruling in california says drivers can use their cell phones while driving, as long as they are looking at a map? a man fought a 165 dollar ticket for using his iphone to find the new route while stuck in heavy

traffic. he argued he wasn't texting or talking. sparking debate about what is considered to be hands-free. the current california law strictly prohibits talking on a cell phone. prosecute our parade of papers. the "los angeles times." jerry brown is running for re-election in 2014. in his announcement brown mentioned his work on repairing the state's budget and job creation. brown turned 25 billion dollar deficit in 2011 into a surplus this year. his approval rating is at an all-time high at 58%. the state's open primary is in june. on the cover of "people" magazine, paula deen is opening up about her scandal last summer. in the interview she says i feel like embattled and disgraced will always follow my name. it's like that black football player who recently came out.

he said i just want to be known as a football player. i don't want to be known as a gay football player. i know exactly what he's saying. deen is referring to nfl prospect michael sam. i just don't think this works! i think maybe she ought to try something else, joe. what do you think? i'm wondering if perhaps she might want to just stay away from talking. >> i think she really should. it's like that. >> talking thing is not working for her. >> it doesn't work. >> it's like that black football player? >> black football player as opposed to one of the white football player. it's like that black football player. >> she started a speech recently scaring her publicist by saying i got a joke about a boy. >> and they all screamed and said, no, no, no! wow! >> i will say it's time for her to put the spoons down and find something else to do.

>> i don't know. >> she needs some quiet time. >> she could use a little quiet time. >> maybe so. >> lower the profile. you know what -- >> when the coach says shut up and play in paula deen, just shut up and cook. >> i don't think she would pass the class what is okay to say? >> on this weekend's cover of "parade" magazine, ellen degeneres talks about hosting the oscars for the second time. >> she will do a great job. mike is here with the morning playbook. deliver for us. >> happy friday and happy oscars weekend! >> thank you so much. we are ramped up for this weekend for sure. start with the new details about how arizona businesses went, quote, deaf con one" about

the anti-gay legislation? >> businesses with big probs in arizona, jpmorgan and apple and marriott and all of the big ones said it would be economically catastrophic for this to occur. overwhelming pressure on her. the super bowl committee saying that arizona might lose the super bowl. but, thomas, this story by alex burns and m.j. lee makes an even bigger point. it says that the most important constituency for gay rights in america is now the fortune 500 because we are seeing again and again new york state, the battleground of virginia. here in arizona, that it's big corporate interests opposing what social conservatives want, a split there in some traditional gop candidacies. >> was there a private in some of the reporting that has been done at the feet dragon that it took for jan brewer to get to the point where she decided i am going to veto this and not wait

any longer? >> right. that is the other end of the telescope, thomas. yeah, for her to wait until the last second to come out and do the dramatic speech that we saw live on msnbc, this had seemed obvious for a while and businesses have been telling us that not only were they going to pull back, but it would be harder to bring other people into virginia -- into arizona conventions, would have been cancelled. and so she did, in fact, take a long time to make a decision that seemed inevitable. >> real fast. do you have a best picture? guess? four os on cars. what you got, mike allen? >> i am -- ah. >> stumped! oh, my gosh. >> >> i'm going "gravity." >> that's a fan favorite. a decent pick. politico's mike allen, not stumped. happy friday, mike. thanks so much. utah valley and new mexico

state want to get national attention this is the way to do it. the accetion that led to this ms on the hard court. "morning joe" sports is next. predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. but, manufacturing in the united states means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. you want everything.orks an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe

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i'm subdividing whether or not in hannibal lecter and lebron had a baby it would look like a mask. lebron james return to the court after breaking his nose. carmelo anthony comes up with a big block on james. watch that. miami takes it from there. james finishes with 31 points. >> that is the one knicks highlight of the night! >> heat burn the knicks. look at that intimidating face mask. utah valley's five-point overtime win against new mexico state last night. the horn sounds. new mexico state's casey ross miller hangs the ball to the opposing player before fans who storm the court. once the crowd makes it onto the floor you can imagine things get a lot worse. 50s begin to play as players and the fans go at it.

quite a mess there. midterms around the corner for many college students and need a quiet place to do studying. spirit is too strong at alabama. the library put up this song reminding students not to yell roll tide while in the building. you can't do that while in the library. >> things have changed. >> very serious. >> they got a library now! >> stop that! >> some nhl action. s an panthers tied up in the third. >> out of the box. he has a break away. green makes a spectacular save! >> he fights for that save there. panthers goalie tim thomas falling on his back and recovers for a great save but he still gives up five goals. caps win 5-4. oh, well. spring training, baseball. a's and the brewers. take a sharp listen what you

hear in the background. so that was a fan shouting mvp e.b. moments before ryan braun hits a home run in his first game since being suspended last july. the former mvp accepted a 65-game ban for violating baseball's drug agreement. you hear the fan yelling it again? so pitcher joba chamberlain made his first appearance of the spring for florida. check out his scar. he turned it into a smiley face tattoo. he went under the knife in 2011 and had this ink for a while now. >> what do you think it looks like? >> lamb chop. >> i think the joker. >> the big dark knight. >> creepy. a well-known athlete in disguise showing off his skills

behind the wheel and giving a critic the firsthand explanation that he does his own stunt driving. >> go back! stop! please top! stop! stop! stop! stop! >> i can't go back! >> help! >> sir, just unlock the door and let me out. ♪ >> come on out, buddy. i'm jeff gordon. >> [ bleep ]! >> so that is nascar's jeff gordon as the taxi driver there. the passenger in the car was one who criticized gordon's previous stunts as being bogus.

while that reporter was completely trolled, jeff gordon was completely behind his own stunts. that was a little set up. >> i think that a little bit of an extreme way to prove that. >> the whole thing looked a little fake. >> do you think it's fake? >> it was for pepsi. >> a lot of camera angles set up to film that thing for a supposedly just like a little stunt. >> no, listen. i believe that. i did that one time with one of our guests a couple of years ago. rick stengel. remember that? i was driving through the ozarks. turn around and did everything. ilg. >> stop! stop! >> that is when he was crying like a baby. >> stop it. >> like a little girl. >> you can't kidnap somebody and drive them around at a hundred miles an hour. >> it was a taxi. he called for a taxi so gets in the back of a taxi but they saw him just going for a taxi ride to the place he wanted to go.

the cops started chasing him and the chase ensues. i buy it. >> you think it's funny to get in a cab and drive a hundred miles an hour? >> i think it's true but we are going to resolve this kris by talking to somebody from the state department. >> we need a diplomat. >> we do. rick stengel is here and he joins us for the most read opinion pages. it's like family reunion time here on "morning joe." [announcer] welcome to the all-new intuit quickbooks.

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csx. how tomorrow moves. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow. ♪ all right. here with us now, get this. under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, rick stengel.

>> very long tightly. >> and you said we would kill your career. it didn't happen! >> no. you helped my career. >> you've been gone for so long. how many months have you been in the job? >> unbelievable. >> i've been in the job two weeks. >> what? >> i was nominated five months ago. there is this long cue, unfortunately, in the senate of nominees and only a few of us -- >> so there i recall many, many people confirmed before you, right? >> no. >> what? >> only a handful. in fact, there are still dozens and dozens of state department people who are not confirmed yet. >> how does the state department function? >> well, it's harder. it's much harder. i think the senate needs to actually start confirming people to serve the american people. >> that would be nice. would be nice. >> we have a lot going on obviously. secretary of state kerry was talking about the ukraine. mika would like to read. >> charles krauthammer. "the washington post" putin's ukraine gambit. whatever anything obama says

says or does would stop anyone remains unquestionable. but surely the west has more financial clout than crush's extraction economy that exports little but oil, gas, and vodka. it's a lot of money but less than one half of one-tenth of 1% if the combined eu and u.s. gdp and treasurer is preferable to compensat expending blood. putin keeps ratcheting up the pressure. can this administration puster the counterpressure to give ukraine a chance to breathe? >> the secretary said yesterday russia is complaining about other on countries. they should listen to themselves

about that and not be hi hypocritical about it. the secretary talked about an ifm loan and about europe doing more and i think folks are looking into that. the ifm is there in kiev talking about this and, yes, a lot more money in the west and ukraine wants to lean towards the west. i think everybody wants us to do more. >> but -- go ahead, gene. >> i was going to say, there is an issue in ukraine, though. there are parts of ukraine that lean toward russia and see themselves historically as more a part of russia and filled with russian speakers. the crimea where stalin marched everybody out because he thought they were centrally collaborationists in world war ii with the germans and filled it up with russian speakers and they are very nervous about going the other way with ukraine and that is an issue has to be dealt with and putin will have a lot of populace support in russia if he takes a hard line.

>> the paramount goal is let the ukrainian people decide on their own destiny and there is a wide range of opinion like there is almost everywhere. but that is the main thing. >> what is the time frame for all of this unfolding? in terms of weeks, months? >> it's complex. in fact, the other day, the secretary came to the morning meeting and said it's a sign of people power but then he also said for efficient refer luvolu is there a counter revolution. it's not simple and not a pure happy story so i think we have to see. i think the west has to help. america has to help and i don't know what the time line is. >> sam stein has a question for you, rick. >> two questions. first, rick, what is on the cover of "time" magazine? >> sam, i don't know. >> obamacare. >> i'm sure it's good, though. >> i'm sure. secondly switching topics. secretary kerry took a little heat and causing a little controversy for saying a week or so ago that saying climate

change was the biggest complexity facing the globe in a couple of decades ahead. can you elaborate on what he meant and whether or not you think this is a big deal? >> i do think it's a big deal. i know he feels passionately about it as does the president. we are talking about environmental diplomacy here. this is an issue that affects every single person on the planet and i think he wants to marshal the leadership of the u.s., the integrity of the u.s. to get nations to start thinking about it and, of course, the u.s. has to think about it too. it's no small thing to him and no small thing to all of us. >> how will that affect keystone? >> look. keystone, i mean, there was a ruling about the legitimacy of how the state department process is going and that is a decision the secretary will make, along with the president. i don't know about that. i know that looking into it and analyzing it in every way possible. >> are you holding the position that -- >> yes, yes. >> she is in.

>> and karen hughes? extraordinarily important position. in the past, i talked to both of those leaders and your position, talking about how hand-fisted the united states had been in the past in its efforts to reach out to especially young students across the world. very quickly explain what this very important position is and how you plan to expand on the work of karen hughes and margaret -- >> thank you for teeing me up, joe. public diplomacy is helping to explain american policy around the world and basically to americans as well. public affairs as you know is our outreach to the media and so it has those two tiers, including educational and affairs with the exchange students and then there is also a countering violent extremism to the job. there are many acronyms in the state department, by the way. but part of the idea is to actually think about public

diplomacy and public affairs when you're creating policy because as you know when you're creating policy, if you can't sell it, if you can't explain it, then it's hard to actually get it done. so part of my job is to actually talk about american foreign policy to foreign publics around the world. you know what? the idea is not so much they are not necessarily hearing from us. we have to explain our policy and they may not like it which is fine. but i want us to be able to explain it. >> no doubt about it. >> back to you ukraine. how concerned are you that vladimir putin won't listen to the warnings, heed the warnings to stay out of the situation? >> unfortunately, it seems like russia is looking at that old cold war paradigm which we have long past. i know the secretary of state has talked to the russian foreign minister and they said they are going to respect the integrity of ukraine, but that the saber rattling doesn't help anybody and makes everybody a little nervous. >> rick stengel, thank you. >> good to see you, rick.

>> i'll see you in washington. >> do we call you mr. undersecretary? >> you can call me rick. you know when henry kissinger game secretary of state he was on a morning show and the host say what do i call you? dr. kissinger or mr. kissinger or secretary kissinger? and henry kissinger said, "your excellency." >> i'm sure that is not what we are calling mr. stengel. >> rick. ahead we talk to a author on a new book on china relations. he says how america can win the era of new competition. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ ♪

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coming up at the top of the hour, we will talk to dr. zbigniew brzezinski. >> will you talk about his dog? >> that is daisy. doesn't work. very, very bad. very badly behaved.

>> i don't think that is the case. family members love to poke at each other and you know how much your dad loves that little dog. >> he loves the dog. why do you brzezinski's hate that? >> daisy is a bowl in a china shop. plus, david gregory joins us for the political round table. you're pro daisy! ian a preview of sunday's "meet the press." "morning joe" back in a moment. humans.

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people. not just those of us here. it has to be a bigger party and it has to be a bigger movement. there are times -- and i don't think it is our movement, but there are times when people are using language that shouldn't be used. i recently criticized someone for using some of that language and i'm not going to bring it up, but i will say that we can disagree with the president without calling him names. i'm not saying that is our problem. i am saying there are people out in the public are taking away from our message. when we present our message, if we want a bigger crowd and we want to win politically, our message has to be a happy message. one of optimism and inclusiveness and one of growth and a message that brings up the people who are poor among us and those long-term unemployed and find them jobs. our message is that. we have to figure out a way that everybody knows that is what we are here for. >> welcome to "morning joe." john heilemann and eugene robinson and thomas roberts all back with us. joining us from washington, the

moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. good to have you on board this friday morning. >> good morning. >> we are going to continue with this story that you just heard us bumping in with rand paul, five years into the tea party movement, its leaders are trying to steer the message into the future with a renewed tone. senator rand paul is calling, as you just heard, for an air of optimism. a happy tone. he is trying to keep the movement from being sidetracked by distracting comments. meanwhile, there are signs of divisions between the republican party's mainstream and its right wing. senator ted cruz was, let's just say, less than enthusiastic about minority leader mitch mcconnell when politico's mike allen asked him to play a game of word association. >> last one. mitch mcconnell. >> leader. >> that's a statement of fact.

>> that is what is stencilled on his door. >> that's all you have to say? should mitch mcconnell be the senate republican leader? >> look. that is a decision for the conference to make. >> no. but what is your personal opinion about that? is' strong leader or is he a sell-out? >> i strongly disagree with the decisions -- some of the decisions republican leadership has made this past year. there is a real divide over how you win elections. there are a number of folks in washington who think the way you win elections is you put your head down, you don't rock the boat, you don't take any risks. >> and that describes the current senate republican leadership? >> sadly. >> it's a fascinating interview there. mike allen asking some tough questions and pushing. but david gregory, i want to go back to rand paul. a couple of years ago there was a big discussion whether bwhether you're going to have

ted cruz or marco rubio or rand paul or all three of them fighting for the same spot in 2016. it looks like rand paul has just broken out of the pac. certainly if you look at the polls and the way he has handled himself, he has been a much more astute politically than, say, marco rubio who had a disastrous 2013 politically and ted cruz, if you look at the numbers, a rough six months for him. >> i totally agree. i think rand paul is emerging as a fascinating political figure and a fascinating figure in a divided republican party. he has a way to be tough and he took on the clintons and turned the war against women against the republicans and talking about bill clinton and raising the spectra of monica lewinsky. it was a way to show the base he is willing to do that. i think his message to the pea party moving forward he is thinking more pragmatically how

not to oppose. i think cruz has isolated himself more within the republican ranks. i think that paul is finding a way to be more pragmatic and have a wired appeal. he also understands how to calibrate his message for different audiences. he unabashed about doing that, depending on who he is talking to. now that may earn him some criticism as well. but it's a magazine mattic streak that says i want to be more than just kind of a protest candidate. >> david, do you think ted cruz can rehabilitate himself in time for 2016? what does he need to do the next couple of years if he wants to run for president and put himself back in the center of the conversation? >> i think it's interesting. talk talk to some republicans as i have on capitol hill. they say he has hurt himself a bit over the past several months and that his insistence on certain tactics over obamacare and so forth has turned off some

of the house republicans who is he trying to court overall this. they felt he wasn't there in the end. i don't know. i think as a grassroots candidate, you know, we will see what happens in the texas primary on monday. i think he has a pretty good base of support. he is certainly a smart guy and he is going to have some room to run. i don't know how he builds from where he is right now. in terms of where the party has to go. >> on the same lines, joe, i'm just wondering. i mean, looking at the names right now that are coming up for 2016, ted cruz i guess might be one of them and rand paul might be one of them and chris christie might be one of them? and how that stacks up against hillary, joe biden and elizabeth warren to name a few. what do you think? >> i don't know. gene, there are going to be two groups, right? you're going to have hand paul and ted cruz and marco rubio and maybe mike huckabee and others and then the main street republicans be it jeb bush,

chris christie. >> right. >> scott walker. >> right. >> that's how it's going to break down. >> yeah. it's just unclear to me. we will just have to see, you know, what happens. there will probably be a far right candidate and a sort of more moderate candidate duking it out in the end. we might have another of these prolive rags of republican candidates, right? like we had the last time. >> it's going to be wide open. >> 15 people lined up across the stage and it will be interesting. >> totally, totally wide open. this is as wide open as it's been in a long, long time. >> you have to say, joe, the tea party candidates who are out there, unlike the last cycle, they are stronger people. i mean, if it's ted cruz and it's rand paul who are filling those slots, they are not going to be the neophytes i think we saw last go round. >> no doubt about it. they have learned -- it's a funny thing about experience. you learn from experience.

ted cruz certainly has learned a lot from what happened six months ago and rand paul has learned from a distance what to do wayne what not to do. >> rand paul is not really associating himself with cruz. he is associating himself with hillary clinton. he is bringing conversations and correlations of his own policy and his own leadership thoughts to her level. to mika's point if we put side-by-side from who on the right, we go up against hillary clinton, rand paul is trying to elevate himself to that level and keeping himself next to her name. >> no doubt about it. >> let's move to foreign policy. joining us now from washington is a man who very difficult to book. i'm serious. you can't get him on this show. >> how did you do it? >> at least i couldn't book him. >> the eu has to step forward and not just offer slogans and long-range invitations. it has to offer some crash because ukraine is on the brink of an economic collapse literally. the eu goes beyond ukraine. it goes to the heart of the

issue, what will russia become over the next decade or so? we have simultaneously three problems in our relations with russia all of which are serious and dangerous and which can best be solved by compromise. >> is my dad coming on today? no. he turned us down. >> he is too busy. he says he is too busy and doing too many shows and he doesn't want to know the strength of his words. i'm kind of hurt, mika. >> here with us now. >> he is here! >> thank god! >> it's like santa claus! >> i know. he is here. >> former national security adviser for president carter and author of the book "strategic vision america and the crisis of global power. >> dr. zbigniew brzezinski. >> he has a busy dance card. >> i guess. >> you need to be a little more understanding. >> mika, was she always that patient growing up? did she kick and scream and say,

i want it, and i want it now? >> i'm sorry, you talking to me? >> yeah. what was the question? >> joe wants to know if i was impatient as a child. >> totally. you remind me in terms of personality of someone that we, nowadays, in our household call daisy. >> oh! >> comparing you to the dog. >> no, that dog is bad. >> very cute. very cute. very charming. a bit unpredictable. i won't go into details. >> let's not actually. let's talk about ukraine. thanks, dad. i'm sort of diminished now but i'll try and do this. >> only to the level of a dog. go ahead. >> let's just talk about vladimir putin and some of the recent developments over the past 24 to 48 hours. it seems to me since the olympics ended where he is making some moves that seem to counter the warnings that secretary of state john contrary is putting forward and our vice

president. >> i have the sense that there is some confusion in moscow on how to react to the ukraine problem. and i imagine probably a lot of disagreement among the top leaders. and putin may be showing himself to be more clumsy than we would have assumed. in any case, i think something is fundamentally involved here and i think it has to be said. if russia plays it roughly, if russia does some extremely things such as seizure of crimea, russia may end up having crimea but will forever lose ukraine. because the ukrainian people are very territorial. they have a sense of their land and they will never forgive russia for this. and, of course there could be some military collision if the russians went too far. i want to mention something which i'm doing just from memory and it's worth checking. but i believe that the 1994,

four years after the breakup of the soviet union, the joint american/russia effort to denuclearize ukraine and remove nuclear weapons from ukraine was completed. on that occasion, a treaty was signed between the united states, the russian federation, great britain, and nuclear power, france and nuclear power, guaranteesing the territorial security and integrity of ukraine. now, this could be also involved here because that means that these powers are now committed. so i hope common sense will prevail in moscow and we can have a deal whereabout the west helps ukraine and the russians help ukraine and ukraine preserves its independence and moves gradually to europe. >> what, if anything, should be offered to or done for the russian speakers in crimea and in the eastern part of ukraine who are not all that thrilled

about the idea of a more definitive break with russia. >> first of all, they have their own rights and asserting them. secondly, it isn't just the russians in some parts of ukraine, although that tends to be exaggerate rated. not every ukraine is speaking russian just as every speaking french is a belgian, is not a belgian. secondly there is that. in russia which has about 145 million people, there are about 20 million people wrote who are not russians so what about their rights? i think ukraine is a state that has existed in its current frontiers a number of years and there is no persecution of the russians either in crimea or in ukraine itself. i think the situation settles down or calms down, i think the people can cohabit, work together and basically ukraine

remains an integral state secure in its own territorial limits. >> thomas roberts? >> you wrote an op-ed for the continuation times. i want to read in part. russian needs a finland option for ukraine. the u.s. should convey to mr. putin prepared to make its influence -- will pursue policies towards russia and similar to those on so feven effectivelily practiced by fin lad. sir, when we talk specifically and pull back the players you talked about earlier money. if we follow the money. who is most supportive to ukraine and where the loyalty will remain with the eu with the

west or russia? >> i think four sources of money for ukraine at this stage. one is the international community and the united states can be very active in that world -- and so forth and the united states itself. secondly, the eu, which has a stake obviously in a stable nonthreatening process of ukraine moving westward but very gradual and slowly. and that there is, third, the russians themselves, russia. after all this in russia's interest have a good relationship with ukraine and not on the ukraine's interest. so the russians, obviously, maintain the position of accommodation and working with the ukrainians and some parts of ukraine are heavily dependent on russia and the russians need ukraine as well. last, but not least, people in ukraine who have astronomicstol the money. look at the balances.

they are worth billions. i think they should be forced to kick in and they have their money in london. i hope -- english. don't take advantage of that and let the money go to ukraine because that could, in itself, immediately contribute a lot of cash. >> dad, david gregory has a question for you. >> good morning, doctor. >> good morning. >> what are the stakes for america and ukraine and, more broadly, how would you advise this president to take on an increatii increasingly vladimir putin? >> i think we have to be patient. persistent. but also very clear. we want accommodation did ukraine but not an accommodation that is dictated by threats of force. basically, i think putin would like to subordinate ukraine to russia and on that basis try to recreate what he calls a union

which is another name for the soviet union and the empire. that is not going to be recreated and nobody wants to be in it and particularly not the ukrainians. you can say to the russians it's not in your interest or our interest to reignite a cold war. we are prepared to work with you and we are trying to stabilize kraen and n ukraine and not try to turn it against you. work with you and i think in the long run, russia, itself, maybe after putin, probably want to move towards europe, especially glances eastward and you know what i mean by that. there is somebody east of russia that the russians fundamentally fear and from whom they took a lot of land. >> john heilemann? >> i want to switch to, doctor, i want to switch to a different topic which is afghanistan. the native defense ministers are getting ready for a complete

withdrawal from afghanistan by the end of the year. there a lot of discussion if we continue on that path, a lot of the progress that has been made in afghanistan is not sustainable. what do you think we are going to see over the course of the next nine months as we head towards the zero option as some people call it in afghanistan? >> i think there is the real danger of a crisis in that relations with afghanistan. but, ultimately, it's their country and they have to think of its future. we have made a commitment with which we have stuck for more than ten years now, trying to create a more modern afghanistan. i feel we were a little ambitious in trying that. it might have been wise just to stick to the military operation and see some sort of negotiated outcome could be reached earlier. but we are where we are. i think the after gpeople from afghanistan are not ready to figure out the long-range relationship with us.

we might be better off leaving sooner rather than later. in any case, i'm reluctant to consider the deployment for a prolonged period of time of a small american military force because that could be overrun if things go badly. so either we stay there with some respectable force in agreement with the afghans or we leave. >> all right. dr. zbigniew brzezinski, thanks, dad. nice to have you on the show finally. >> everything is hard. >> i want daisy. >> i want to ask him to bring daisy. >> especially if daisy -- he says daisy reminds him of mika. >> listen. >> we need to see why. >> you're going to need a team of negotiators to accompany daisy on this show. >> i think daisy is perfect for dr. brzezinski. >> she looks sort of vicious.

>> she's not. >> about to take a chunk out of that guy's leg. >> come on my property and you will meet daisy! thank you, david gregory, as well. david, what do you have on sunday's "meet the press"? >> well, we will be talking about these topics but also the future of our military, the fight over the budget. what do we have to be prepared for in the future. two key members of the armed services committee talking about that. >> great. thank you, david. >> talking about daisy, do you think? >> no. coming up, we will break down the race for oscar gold. a preview of the 86th academy awards with tony scott. plus louis is playing the part out in l.a. ahead of sunday's beg show. i'm scared. >> so successful for so long because we kept it just small enough. >> so if you are that successful, how come you ended up in this room with me? right now! with me! taking orders from me! this is agent vincent placing

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"ironman" reach $10 billion. the industry's best year to date. >> houston! >> the top ten films of the year, "gravity" eye popping effects. the academy followed suit rewarding the film with ten nominatio nominations. a best actress nod for sandra bullock the first since 2009. david ruffle's "american hustle" picking up ten nominations of their own. the second movie in the last 30 years to receive nominations in all four acting categories. the other? david o'russell's 2012 hit and not to be forgotten based on a true story 12 years a slave for nine nominations. now a household name, he could take home his first oscar for best actor and don't be surprised if his co-star swoopes in for best supporting actress.

>> actually, the woman i've been seeing, samantha, i didn't tell you but she's -- >> joaquin phoenix did not receive an award, the picture did receive five nominations including one for best picture and best original screen play. >> i'm good with water for now, though. thank you. >> his first day on wall street. give him time. >> leonardo dicaprio could end his award drought. hill showed us his range in depth this year with his performance alongside dicaprio. >> you show me a pace for $72,000 i quit my job and work for you. >> his second nomination for a supporting role in two years. he is up with leto who won a supporting role in "dallas buyer's club." but his competition could be

matthew mcconaughey. he is in the midst of a resurgence with standout roles in "magic mike" and "true detective" and this sunday we will see if mcconaughey completes his juourney to be an oscar aaward winning actor. >> i don't know what to say. >> the last part was a little weird. >> no. that was actually louis taking chances and i thought he did a really, really good job. >> sometimes you don't recognize him. unbelievable. >> he has done a good job. >> who he is now? >> remember when we first hired him seven years ago? >> actually from l.a. >> yeah. he'll come back. >> he has to justify the expense, right? >> a guy who can pass as bradley

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34 past the hour. joining us is chief film critic for "the new york times." tony scott. we have to look ahead to sunday night. go through the big categories for best picture. i also want to know who you think should win. >> who i think should and will? a difference, right? >> big difference. >> why don't we start with best picture. who should win? >> i think "12 years a slave" should win. it's a wonderful movie. apart from its importance as a document of history and the lessons it has to teach it's a really well made and really gripping and emotionally intense movie with wonderful performances. a terrific screen play. the whole package. >> i would think philomena"

also? >> i think they will go with the big hit and the movie that shows the magic of movie making at its wide which is "gravity." >> really? >> i think "gravity" is going to edge it out. >> i'm surprised by that because i agree with you about "12 years a slave." >> it's very close. this year -- >> is "gravity" good? >> yes. it is kind of, you know, old-fashioned big spectacle. it's not that long. 90 minutes and it kind of grabs hold of you and shakes you around and throws you on on the floor. you have sandra bullock in space. >> the box office don't usually -- >> the big franchise block busters don't but hollywood does like success and it does like movies that kind of show sort of movie magic, that please audiences and also have a high degree of technical and

creativity. >> best actor, who should win? >> i'm on "team leo." i think the spirit of modern capitalism is not easy to do, his performance would be my choice. i don't think it's nelson the technically the best piece of acting we saw last year but so much energy and exuberance. he is in this character and showing all side of his character. >> who will win? >> i think matthew mcconaughey will win. if you lose a lot of weight and you play someone suffering from a terrible disease and you you're watching msnbc. your place for politics. out as a bad guy and turn into a good guy, not to be cynical. >> but you are very cynical. a lot of times you can predict. if somebody steps out of their role. >> yes. >> and suffers. loses a lot of weight or suffers and somebody like plays gandhi

and does a a good job. you say, wait, is that gandhi? >> there is a formula who wins. >> best actress? >> i think best actress, a tricky one because it's been cate blanchett has seemed to be a lock. but i kind of wonder. sort of the woody allen. >> this is a tough one. >> the woody allen scandal. >> the voting just wrapped up last weekend. >> who should win best actress? >> i would say both should and will, amy adams. i think that amy adams was the best thing in america. her character was kind of center of the whole story. the most unpredictable, the most interesting. the one whose emotions were most in question. so i think that she should win and i think that she just might. >> cate blanchett also making things more difficult for cate

blanchett, not just that it's woody allen movie but also anybody that saw the movie at the end were like, wait a second. that's about mia farrow. no doubt. it was woody allen taking down mia farrow saying you are in this position and you are poor and you are miserable and you are alone because you've betrayed me, i hope it was worth it. >> you betrayed me for being -- >> i'm just saying. that makes it that much -- because it's -- it makes it that much harder for voters to let cate blanchett win despite the fact we all agree the performance is amazing. >> the performance is extraordinary. cate blanchett is well beloved in hollywood. i mean, she has a lot of fans and -- >> in the s.a.g. awards she comes on and think odd she is going to pay some type of price? >> it's very hard to get inside

the mindset of the academy. they just might not care in the end about woody allen and dylan farrow and all of that. they may be able to block that out of their minds. on the other hand, they may not want that anywhere near their party. they may just not want it here. >> has been fine with it a long time. >> true. >> i think the rules have sort of changed. best performance by a supporting role actor. you have a different opinion here? >> yeah. i think that it should be -- again, just like "wolf of wall street" i think jona hill. i think what he did there was so kind of crazy. he was sort of like jerry lewis to dicaprio's dean martin. i think he will win because he dresses in the drag. >> blah, blah, blah. >> tragic figure.

and sort of the -- >> oh, look. >> tony scott, thank you. >> we lost a great one earlier this week. a guy that we all grew up with and we were just commenting that if he didn't do comedies, he probably would have had a house full. >> i think you look at "groundhog day." that movie stands up. you could watch it as many times as bill murray wakes up in the morning in that movie and always find new stuff in it. >> why doesn't an oscar have a comedy academy? you were saying that too about jonah hill his performance being como comedy and they may not win it. >> i think that it's part of the whole oscar mystique of prestige and seriousness and this is where we are showing kind of the best art that hollywood has to offer and it's this sort of

middle brow idea that art has to be what is serious and what is good for you. >> but how does harold ramis go 40 years from "animal house" and forward and these movies that become a part of our lives and, yet, there is never a moment until after he dies that the academy stops and says, oh, my god, we grew up with this guy that has created comic films that could be with us for a very long time. >> it typically does that. it's the same with performers. you know? the ones who we have loved and who have made us laugh and who get a career achievement award or get in a memorial clip but don't have an oscar. i think the love of the public and the success of the movies means more in the end. >> oh, yeah. >> the oscars are basically to supply correct answers for future trivia questions. >> there you go. you proved that. tony scott, thank you. >> nothing cynical about it. >> not me.

>> we will see what happens. reverend al sharpton was on hand. he joins the table to talk about that day next on "morning joe." ♪ one morning i woke up and i knew ♪ ♪ a new day a new way ♪

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money that will go to programs and practices that are aimed at getting young men of color on a path to success. now, the white house can't say specifically how many programs will benefit and some critics say it's too little, too late. still, it's clear yesterday's event was deeply personal for this president. 19-year-old rasheed mills never imagined he would make it to college. he says his home life was unstable, his future uncertain. but that changed when he joined this covenant house two years ago the d.c. based youth support center helps mills get his ged. he is now a college freshman. >> it seemed like it was out of man. like it was an unreachable goal. once they got me there, it was like, i was so happy when i got to school! >> reporter: on thursday, the president announced a new initiative my brother's keeper aimed at bolstering players like covenant house and studying ways to keep young men of color in school and out of jail and on a pathway to success. >> too many of them are falling by the wayside, dropping out,

unemployed. >> reporter: among those joining the president for his announcement? teens from a chicago youth group called "being a man." mr. obama first met with them last year in chicago. making the moment personal. >> to my surprise, he was just like me. growing up without a father. and sometimes not too concerned with school. >> i explained to them that when i was their age, i was a lot like them. i didn't have a dad in the house. and i was angry about it even though i didn't necessarily realize it at the time. i didn't always take school as seriously as i should have. >> reporter: also at the white house on thursday? some of the ceos and philanthropists and government leaders who vow to donate more money and join in the fight. >> i'm happy that president obama is stepping forward saying we need this and this is important in america. not just in the black and brown

community, but for america. >> reporter: statistics show african-americans and latinos make up 61% of the population but 61% of the prison population and graduation rate lower than the whites and black employment rate is twice the national average. critics say the first african-american president should have addressed what is a crisis sooner. >> you telling me that the best he can do for the populations that sweat blood and tears so he could get elected is called together a couple of stake holders for on some kids. >> the j>> reporter: the white argues. he says the death of trayvon martin played a role in his first initiative, specifically targeting at-risk youth. >> in the aftermath of the trayvon martin verdict, with all of the emotions and controversy that it sparked, i spoke about the need to bolster and reinforce our young men. >> reporter: the president also

called on the teens to do their part. >> part of our message in this initiative is no excuses. >> reporter: these young men plan to hold the president accountable too saying their future depends on it. >> it's, like, youth guidance programs, they don't have the funding to go on, they get cancelled. but maybe this one will stay around forever. you never know. >> reporter: now, the president says this is a part of his so-called year of action, so he's also creating a task force that will study what programs and practices are having the most success. he says he's going to continue this type of outreach, even after he leaves the white house. mika? >> all right, kristen welker, thank you very much. >> thank you so much. let's bring in right now the host of msnbc's "politics nation" and the president of the national election network, reverend al sharpton. al, were you there. talk about how this program will be different from other programs. >> i think the difference is that the president having a unique background himself,

having grown up a minority, from a single-parent home, can look as president and then look as one that was one of these young men -- >> that's pretty remarkable moment, by the way. >> very remarkable. >> when he said i was like you. >> very remarkable. and i was sit there in the front, and i was watching the young men, because i grew up in the same kind of circumstance. >> right. >> and i think that it was very personal to them and very personal for some of us that were in that room that i don't think a lot of people understand. i think he brings unique skills in saying this program is effective, this is not, and he can raise resources, none of which will be government money. >> yeah. yeah. pretty incredible. a partnership. >> you know, i had a commitment, i wasn't able to attend the rescheduled announcement. you were in that room. and i was curious about the feeling and, you know, is it

optimistic that this is actually going to finally make some progress? >> i think -- i think it was very optimistic. you know, about two weeks ago, he met with those of us that lead about three or four of the national civil rights groups, and he was very enthused about it, and he invited us. and we all came, rescheduled and came yesterday. i sat with trayvon martin's parents and jordan davis' parents and i thought about how we fight the injustices there. but this is different. this is about trying to make opportunities and trying to build self-esteem and challenging these kids. and when he started talking, he got very personal, because when he talked about the anger -- i just wrote a book about the anger i went through as a rejected child, a rejected -- i think all of us came looking for one thing, and he made it very personal, very special, and very hopeful. >> what frustrates me, you talk about jordan davis and trayvon martin, when you get to that point, it's too late. >> right. and it brings in other issues. this is not that.

it's important that in all of us will continue to fight there. but this is, despite the fact your father was not there, you expected to be something. despite the fact you come out of a deprived community, you can't have excuses. which is what a bishop washington and reverend bill jone has to pound into me. i didn't know i was underprivileged until i got to college, because no one let me feel that way. people would tell me, you expected to make it. it wasn't until later in life that i learned all of these socioeconomic classes that, oh, i didn't have to do all of this striving and trying. that's what i think he's trying to do with this program. >> you know, there is also, though, the president yesterday, his words were so moving, i'm sure they were so moving inside that room, talking about his experiences growing up, but also at the end, too, just like you said. the president, after talking about all of that, ends up by telling everybody there, no excuses. >> no excuses. >> we expect, i expect as president of the united states, great things from you.

that's a powerful message. >> it's powerful, joe, because, also, you're looking at a man that did it. >> yeah. >> so it's one thing if i'm looking at you and people are saying something to me, and i said, but you don't know what i've been through. >> right. >> he's been through that, and he's president of the united states. so it removes any of the defense mechanisms that automatically kick in, and you say, i can't argue with him. and i think that's what he brings to the table. >> yeah. >> reverend al, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. we'll see at 6:00 on "politics nation." >> i'll be there. so will joe.

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♪ up next, managing the tea party's message. the new strategy from senator rand paul. and how discipline could help take them -- give them -- get them to the next step. "morning joe" comes right back in just a moment. so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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♪ good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast,

5:00 a.m. on the west coast. oh, the rain! there's so much rain coming to l.a. take a live look at new york city, why don't you? back on set, we have eugene robinson, here in new york, john hywellman, thomas robertis, and this washington, sam stein. the tea party movement. its leaders are trying to steer the message into the future with a renewed tone. senator rand paul is trying to keep the movement from being side tracked with an apparent reference to recent remarks by rocker ted nugent about president obama. >> we have to reach out to more people, not just those of us here. it has to be a bigger party, and it has to be a bigger movement. there are times -- and i don't think it is our movement -- but there are times when people are using language that shouldn't be used, and i recently criticized someone for using some of that language, and i'm not going to

bring it up. but i will say we can disagree with the president without calling him names. i'm not saying that's our problem. i'm saying there are people out in the public that are taking away from our message. when we present our message, if we want a bigger crowd and we want to win politically, our message has to be a happy message, one of optimism, one of inclusiveness, one of growth, one of -- a message that actually brings up the people who are poor among us, brings up those who are long-term unemployed and finds them jobs. our message is that. but we have to figure out a way to make sure everybody knows that's what we're here for. >> "the new york times" reports democratic groups like emily's list are fund-raising on a tax against candidates like lindsey davis, who has been called abortion barbie and alison grimes called an empty dress. meanwhile, there are signs of division between the republican party's mainstream and its right wing. senator ted cruz was less than enthusiastic about minority

leader mitch mcconnell when politico's mike allen asked him to play a game of word association. >> okay. this will be good. >> last one. mitch mcconnell. >> leader. >> that's a statement of fact. [ laughter ] >> that is what is stencilled on his door. >> that's all you have to say. should mitch mcconnell be the senate republican leader? >> look, that is a decision for the conference to make. >> no, but what's your personal opinion about that? is he a strong leader or is he a sellout? >> i strongly disagree with the decisions -- some of the decisions republican leadership has made this past year. there is a real divide over how you win elections. there are a number of folks in washington who think the way you win elections is you put your head down, you don't rock the boat, you don't take any risks.

>> and that describes the current senate republican leadership? >> sadly. >> okay. >> all right. so starting with rand paul, i guess i just wonder what you think about how -- what he just said conflights with some of the comments he's made recently about hillary clinton, along the same liens -- >> i that i it's a great message he's delivering. it's a fantastic message, talking about optimism. again, the republican party and the tea party movement and all of us looking inward, like glenn beck did a few weeks ago, okay, what have i done over the past several years that may not have helped my cause? i do that not every few years. i do that every few minutes. [ laughter ] i mean so -- you know -- and i need to do that every few minutes. but listen, rand paul is singing my song. i love what he's saying. i've always said, let's not get distracted by resentments against the president or resentments against our political adversaries.

let's focus on the message, make it a positive message, and explain to americans why the conservative message is actually going to bring working-class voters and middle-class voters to a better place. so i love what rand said. >> well, i liked what he said, too, but i wonder, gene, given the fact that -- i wonder if he -- >> can i say one other thing, too, really quickly, mika, and -- because i'm missing the most important point. >> mm-hmm. >> if he's saying that a "new york times" editorial board, that's a safe place to say that. he's actually going in and speaking to a group of tea party patriots that didn't -- may not -- some people may not have wanted to hear that message, because they thought, oh, he's selling out to main street republicans, or et cetera. so there is courage in him saying it where he said it, where he could have been booed. >> but that's a great point. so why is that a courageous thing for him to do? and the reason is, so much of

the energy from the right in recent years has been fuelled by this sort of anger and resentment and, look, people have appealed to that and kind of, you know, whipped that up. i think the message now is right. but it's going -- you know, it will take more than one speech to kind of take all that back. >> john, has he been a part of the message, and should the caveat in his speech be, "we've all been guilty of making remarks that are perhaps over the line"? >> he's talking about -- him talking about bill and hillary? >> yeah, and monica lewinsky and all of that. i thought it was very sexist. if we're talking about abortion barbie and an empty dress -- >> but he didn't say that. he didn't use those quotes. and i don't think rand paul has been over the top with most of his language. i don't think it makes sense to relitigate -- >> he didn't use those quotes -- >> to relitigate the clinton wars from '98 and '99.

but rand has been -- whether you agree with him or don't agree with him on things-- rand has been set apart from, let's say, some. the talk-show radio hosts who have said really inflammatory things. >> he's walking a pretty interesting line right now. it's been a pretty good, i think for him, the criticisms notwithstanding, i think it's been a pretty good couple months for rand paul, and he has walked this line between doing some things like the then you're talking about, mika, where he is clearly still -- he's a republican, he has to plan the republican primary and trying to do things that appeal to the base, while also obviously taking a bunch of positions that are fascinating in the sense that they are, you know, to the left of many democrats on issues like privacy and on issues like the drone wars and on drugs. he looks to me like a guy who's trying to figure out how you win a republican primary and still are able to compete in a general election. and it's a fascinating contrast with ted cruz, who's struggling for oxygen right now and is still very much in that box of a guy who is playing just -- just playing for the republican

primary, and has done nothing over the course of the last year, and not yesterday where he was out in public both at the politico breakfast and also the tea party patriot thing, still singing just to the republican choir, not talking in a broader way. >> right. >> thomas? >> what do you make of all of that, especially with rand paul coming out, he would not name-drop ted nugent specifically, but he made the reference to ted nugent and about the language he had used in the past that he wants to try to avoid as they make the tent bigger. you know they're going for people with tattoos and those who don't have tattoos, and people with beard or no beards, chest hair, or no chest hair. all walks. [ laughter ] >> from what i've observed, at least a little bit, there's been a boomerang in the republican party among people who sort of understand that you want to win. you actually want to win races. >> yeah. >> and i think for rand paul and for others, they look back and they say, well, we could have potentially had a senator in missouri, in indiana, potentially nevada, certainly

delaware if we either ran bette ran were more disciplined in the rhetoric. i think there's merit to that. i happen to also believe that policies played a role. but certainly you can say and you can convincingly say if you just take candidates that weren't so out there, rhetorically, you would have stood a better chance. and i think that's a theory, a concept, a belief that's taking hold in the broader republican party. and rand paul encapsulated that yesterday, and i think he's looking forward to 2016 as well as 2014 in saying, listen, let's just be smart about it. >> style matters in politics. rhetoric matters in politics. there's reason harry reid is still majority leader of the senate, and it's because we had inflammatory senate candidates who ran stupid campaigns, who were political amateurs who didn't know when to keep their mouths shut. >> and that's my question, because you have been saying this for years and actually doing it. and i just wonder if -- >> i'm good at that. >> -- outnumbered here on the rand paul issue, wondering how

you think ted cruz did, by the way, in the mike allen interview, because he seemed to be struggling to say about something about mitch mcconnell, and it's not that hard. as far as rand paul is concerned, has he been a part of this inflammatory right, and should he have included himself in we need to turn over? it's one thing for you to say it, and i personally think, especially as it pertains to women, it's another thing for him to say it. >> well, rand paul -- rand paul has not been -- and i'm just going through -- flipping through my own note cards about republicans that have said things that have made me gasp and say, this is going to kill us with swing voters. rand paul doesn't do that. i don't understand the strategy sometimes. >> he kind of did it once, a long time ago, when he questioned the constitutionality -- you know, the civil rights act -- >> oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> that was a while ago. >> right before he got elected, right. that was one of those times where you talked about that.

and really quickly, sam, and i'll go to you here -- >> sure. >> -- and i think i have gone from being with everybody on ted cruz six months ago, where i thought what he was doing was terrible for the republican party, to now understanding and agreeing and actually being quite comfortable with just about everything i've seen us play clips on with ted cruz. because i was, sam stein, all i was i still am, a republican that's very uncomfortable with the republican establishment in washington, d.c., that has -- >> sure. >> -- over the past decade helped spend us into bankruptcy and pass $7 trillion medicare drug benefit plan without paying for a single dime of it. it allowed military spending to explode. it allowed domestic spending to explode. it allowed entitlement spending to explode. so i'm actually -- i think everybody expects when we play a clip of ted cruz now, for me to immediately go, oh, how could ted cruz not say mitch mcconnell is the greatest majority leader ever?

[ laughter ] for small-government conservatives, for guys like myself that got into congress because they believed in less government and believed in fighting the establishment on both sides, i'm quite comfortable with what he's saying right now. >> sure. listen -- -- where he was six months ago. >> i think the big question, though, is when it comes to assessing how these people are doing, is when do they choose to fold their hands? when do they choose to say, okay, i've gotten as much as i can. i keep going back to the government shutdown debate ted cruz by the end of that was virtually on an island saying we have to keep going forward, we shouldn't fold, we have them right where we want them, and rand paul contrasting him today, saying, okay, we need to recognize it's a losing hand. it's not a policy consideration, it's a temperamental consideration. and that's what we're getting at, which is rand paul has a better, more astute sense of what actually can be done in the context of the congress, and ted cruz has built in idea for conservatives to buy into, which

is that if you just have the will power, you can shape everything that you want. and i just don't think that works. i think he's selling conservatives a bit of a false bag of goods. >> well, i think conservatives, you look at the polls, and you can see which one of these young senators have risen, and i guess that's how we wrap this up this morning. in 2010, you had three young senators that people thought were the next leaders of the conservative movement. rand paul, marco rubio, and ted cruz. right now, if you look at the polls, it's not even close. >> not close. >> rand paul has won this intermural battle by a country mile. >> and i think at least in the case of ted cruz, marco rubio is a whole separate set of problems. >> yeah, marco is -- >> the problem for ted cruz is he is all tactics. his criticism of the republican leadership resonates with a lot of people in the republican party. what he still not done, and this is what rand paul has done effectively, is lay out an

actual vision in what he believes in affirmatively. we can talk about rand paul. we know where he's headed. and it's interesting. you might agree or disagree with it, but it's interesting. most people think of ted cruz lr largely bundle of tactics, but we don't know what his positive version of conservativism is. >> -- younger -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> -- i could try to pretend to be jon meacham, but i -- i won't state 14th century references. >> yes, yes. okay. what else do we have? >> one more story i want to get in this block. a new trove of text messages released in the george washington bridge scandal shows more vindictive language between david wildstein and bridget ann kelly. in this newly revealed wave of texts, they discuss rabbi mindy kylebach. kelly was sent a photo of the

religious leader. the rabbi has officially pissed me off. kelly responded clearly we can't cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we? wildstein wrote back, flights to tel aviv all mysteriously delayed. perfect, kelly said. by the way, the port authority controls the area's airports. carl bach has travelled with christie to israel and served on the jersey-israel commission, but it's not clear why wildstein had a problem with him. still, the texts don't connect the governor himself, and there are questions about how much new jersey residents care about the scandal. the "washington post" chris cillizza points out that at recent town hall meetings with the governor, not one person has brought up the lane closures. i'd say those texts are bad. >> well, at the very least, we've all said this before, what the texts show is the governor, even if the governor is a mile away from this scandal when it's all over, he's going to have to

explain why he put such people around him. >> they worked -- >> it's a pattern. now you have a pattern -- >> they were doing it. it's proved now this was -- >> right. so he'll have to at least explain that. but chris cillizza brings up a point i wrote about last week in a column, chris christie is holding all of the town hall meetings, and they're open to the public. people are coming in with signs that say resign, and they're tough and pushing him on sandy and pushing him here, and pushing him there. not one person, not one new jersey resident, asking all of the tough questions of him, have brought up bridge scandal. not one of them. >> are the town halls open to the press? >> yeah, they're open to everybody. >> they should cover it. >> well, you know, we were talking the other day about the poll about christie's numbers and down to, like, 49 or something, but still above water in terms of popular/unpopular. and so, i think probably new jersey residents, you know, they get it. they get what happened in the traffic scandal as far as we know now, and maybe waiting for

the next shoe to drop, but maybe they've heard a lot about it. >> i was going to say, they have heard so much about it, i do really think, sam, there's been such an overkill on this story that new jersey residents are, like, ehh, enough. when will i get my sandy relief? when are you going, you know, help me get my business back open? when am i going to get my house, you know, reshingled? when's that coming? >> well, i agree with that. i think in new jersey -- actually, they've asked these questions at the -- at these open town halls. it's been much more focused, if there are questions, it's been much more focused on sandy relief, and that resonates with them a lot more, because it means more to them. it's tangible money in their communities. >> coming up on "morning joe," politico reports businesses went def con1 to stop a bill.

weville details on the pressure brought to bear. first, bill karins with a ridiculously bad forecast. bill? >> yeah, just a broken record. winter continues. this time, at least, we're bringing in rainfall to california. that's the good part of this storm. the bad thing is, when the storms come into california, they have to move across the country. this time, it's really cold. so it means more ice and more snow. so we got a big storm out there. it's already brought significant rain. l.a. picked up 3/4 of an inch of rain. still raining this morning. on-and-off showers and thunderstorms. maybe an isolated tornado or two in southern california. hope think, we want to avoid a lot of mudslides. otherwise, the rain is beneficial. look how cold it is. minus 5 in new york. minus 7 chicago. already the areas in purple are under winter storm watches, so oklahoma, kansas, missouri, illinois, northern arkansas, indiana, southern ohio, into west virginia, and eventually the watches will be extended later today into the northeast. this is kind of how i see it playing out. watch out for an ice storm possible from oklahoma, northern

arkansas, southern missouri, through kentucky, and then there'll be a pretty good band of snow on the north side of this, as much as 6 to 12 inches of snow from areas of new york city, philadelphia, maybe indianapolis, pittsburgh, all the way back to kansas city. so that will mostly be sunday into monday, and monday horrible traffic day driving, especially early monday morning, in the northeast. we'll have more details on that as the storm approaches here on msnbc. you're watching "morning joe."

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we were doing so well. joe was very nicely dressed, except he didn't have shoes. let's take a look now at the morning papers. "san jose mercury news" a court ruling in california says drivers can use their cell phones while driving, as long as they're looking at a map? a man fought a $165 ticket for using his iphone to find a new route while stuck in heavy traffic. he argued he wasn't texting or talking, sparking debate about what's considered to be hands-free. the current california law strictly prohibits talking on a cell phone. i was wondering about the map app. from our parade of papers, "the los angeles times" governor -- california governor jerry brown is running for re-election in 2014. in his announcement, brown mentioned his work on repairing the state's budget and job creation. brown turned a $25 billion

deficit in 2011 into a surplus this year. his approval rating is at an all-time high at 58%. the state's open primary is in june. and on the cover of "people" magazine, paula deen is opening up about her career-shattering scandal last summer. and in the interview, she said, quote, i feel like embattled or disgraced will always follow my name. it's like that black football player who recently came out. he said i just want to be known as a football player. i don't want to be known as a gay football player. i know exactly what he's saying. deen is referring to nfl prospect michael sam. she recently -- i just don't think this works. i think maybe she ought to try something else, joe, what do you think? i'm wondering if perhaps she might want to just stay away from talking? >> i think she really should.

it's like that -- >> -- the talking then is not working for her. >> it's not. >> it's like that black football player -- >> black football player as opposed to one of the white football -- it's like that black -- >> and she started out a speech recently scaring her publicist by saying i've got a joke about a boy. >> about a boy. and they screamed, no, no, no, no, no. >> wow. >> i'm going to say it's time for her to put the spoons down and find something else to do. >> i don't know. she needs quiet time. >> she could use a little quiet time. >> maybe so. >> you know what? >> -- shut up and play. >> -- paula deen, shut up and cook. >> i don't think she'd pass the class, "what's okay to say." >> yeah. on this weekend's cover of "parade" magazine, ellen degeneres talks about hosting the oscars for the second time. it's going to be fun!

let's go to thomas roberts now. >> ellen will do a great job. we look forward to it. with us is mike allen with the morning "playbook." mike, deliver for us. >> thomas, happy friday! and happy oscars weekend! >> oh, you're the best. thank you so much. we're ramped up for this weekend. let's start with how arizona businesses went defcon 1 trying to urge governor jan brewer to veto the controversial bill about the anti-gay legislation. >> yeah, well, thomas, businesses with a big presence in arizona, and we're talking about jpmorgan, apple, marriott, all of the big ones said it would be economically catastrophic for this to occur. and so, overwhelming pressure on her, the super bowl committee saying that arizona might lose the super bowl. but, thomas, this story by alex burns and m.j. lee makes an even bigger point. it says that the most important

constituency for gay rights in america is now the fortune 500, because we're seeing it again and again. new york state. the battleground of virginia. here in arizona. it's big corporate interests opposing what social conservatives want -- a split there in some traditional gop candidacies. >> mike, behind the scenes, was there surprise in some of the reporting that's been done at the feet-dragging that it took for jan brewer to get to the point where she decided, i'm going to veto it, i won't wait any longer? >> that's the other end of the telescope, thomas, and for her to wait until the last second, to come out and do the dramatic speech that we saw live on msnbc, this had seemed obvious for a while, and businesses had been telling us that not only were they going to pull back, but it would be harder to bring other people into virginia -- into arizona. conventions would have been

cancelled. and so, she did, in fact, take a long time to make a decision that seemed inevitable. >> politico's mike allen. up next, our conversation with tony scott ahead of the tony awards. honestly? i wanted a smartphone that shoots great video. so i got the new nokia lumia icon. it's got 1080p video, three times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor. it's got the brightest display, so i can see what i'm shooting -- even outdoors, and 4 mics that capture incredible sound. plus, it has apps like vine -- and free cloud storage. my new lumia icon is so great, even our wipeouts look amazing. ♪ honestly, i want to see you be brave ♪ ♪ can you start tomorrow? tomorrow we're booked solid. we close on the house tomorrow. tomorrow we go live...

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♪ joining us now, chief film critic for "the new york times," tony scott. we got a look ahead to sunday night. we'll go through what big categories are for best picture. i also want to know who you think should win. >> who i think should and who i think will. >> a difference there. a big difference. >> yeah, a big difference. >> why don't we start with best picture. we'll start big. >> i think "12 years a slave" should win. i think it's a wonderful movie, apart from its importance as a document of history and the lessons it has to teach, it's a really well-made, really gripping, really emotionally intense movie with wonderful performances, terrific screenplay, the whole package. >> i would think "philamena" applies in the same way. >> yeah, i think "philamena" is

a nice movie. i think a lot of them -- i love "nebraska," for example. i think they will go with big hit, the movie that shows the magic of moviemaking which is "gravity." i think "gravity" will edge it out. >> very surprised by that. because i agree with you about "12 years a slave." >> it's very close. >> is "gravity" good? >> yes, "gravity" is good. it is a kind of old-fashioned, big spectacle, it's not that long, 90 minutes, it grabs hold of you, shakes you around, throws you on the floor, you have sandra bullock in space. >> the big movies, though, at the box office, they don't usually win best picture. >> the big franchise blockbusters don't. but hollywood does like success, and it does like movies that kind of show sort of movie magic, that please audiences and also have a high degree of technical and creativity --

>> the best actor, who should win and who will win? >> i'm on team leo. for embodying the spirit of modern capitalism, which is not always easy to do, his performance in "wolf of wall street" is -- would be my choice. i mean, i don't think it's necessarily the technically best piece of acting that we saw last year. but there's so much energy and so much exuberance that he's in this character and showing all of the different sides of his personality. i think that's -- i think that's a terrific performance. >> who will win? >> i think matthew mcconaughey will win. i think if you -- if you lose a lot of weight and if you play someone suffering from a terrible disease and show someone that starts out as a bad guy and turns into a good guy -- >> check all of the boxes. >> not to be cynical. >> no, no, no, but you are very cynical. a lot of times you can predict, if somebody steps out of their role -- >> yes, yes. >> -- lose a lot of weight,

suffers, or if somebody, like, let's say plays gandhi and does a good job, and you say, wait, is that gandhi or -- >> right, right. >> there's a formula to who wins. >> best actress? >> i think that best actress -- this is a tricky one, because it's been, you know cate blanchett has seemed to be a lock, but i kind of wonder, the sort of woody allen -- the renewed woody allen scandal, if that's going to hurt her a little bit. >> when do the -- >> the voting, i think, just wrapped up. >> okay. >> over last weekend. >> should win best actress? >> i mean, i think i would say both should and will, amy adams. i think that amy adams was the best thing in "american hustle." i think her character was kind of the center of the whole story, the most unpredictable, the most interesting, the one whose emotions were kind of most in question. so i think -- i think that she should win, and i think that she just might.

>> but cate blanchett also making things more difficult for cate blanchett, not just that it's a woody allen movie, but also anybody that saw the movie at the end -- >> mm-hmm. >> -- were, like, wait a second, that's about mia farrow. no, it is. >> right, right. >> no doubt, woody allen taking down mia farrow, saying you are in this position, and you are poor, and you are miserable, and you were alone -- >> you betrayed me. >> -- because you betrayed me. i hope it was worth it. >> betrayed me for being a cad. >> i'm just saying that -- because it's so personal, it makes it that much harder for voters to let cate blanchett win, despite the performance that -- >> it was extraordinary. and cate blanchett is well beloved in hollywood. she has a lot of fans and a lot of -- >> she comes on from the sag awards from the bafta award, and it would be odd to think she'd

pay some type of price for -- >> it's very hard to get inside the mindset of the academy. they just might not care. >> yeah. >> about woody allen and dylan farrow and all of that. they may be able to block that out of their minds. on the other hand, they may not want that anywhere near their party. they may just not want it near mr. allen's name mentioned from that stage. >> yeah. the rules have sort of changed. >> it will be interesting. >> so best performance by a supporting role, actor. you have a different diversion opinion here. >> yeah, i think that -- i think it should be, again, just like "wolf of wall street" i think jonah hill -- i think that comic performances get not enough attention. >> true. >> from the academy. and i think what he did there was so kind of crazy. he was sort of like jerry lewis, you know, to dicaprio's dean martin. i think jared leto will win. >> you said jonah hill's

performance being more comedic, so he might not win, do they just not have enough comedies -- >> no, they have many. and golden globes split it between comedy and drama. i think that it's part of the whole oscar mystique. >> tony, thank you. >> excited about it. >> yes, it is. the travel. coming up, jeff dyer digs deep into the relationship with china, and the controversy playing out from the banks to the high seas.

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♪ here with us right now is journalist for "financial times"

geoff dyer, author of "the contest of the century," the new era of the contest with china and how america can win. very patriotic, how you have the american flag built in sdplchlt and chinese flag, too. >> yes, quite a mix here. of course, i say patriotic, because america is on top. >> absolutely. and i think that's the underlying theme, is that even though there's a sense that china is this juggernaut taking over the world, actually america has very powerful advantages, very strong position. if it does smart things over the next decade or so, it can deal very effectively with china. >> explain that, though, the sea change coming ahead, and how -- when we think of china, i think a lot of us will think about currency manipulation, and explain how that is taken into context for where we are today and trying to move forward for mo is going to lead the way. >> well, what i think you're seeing in china the last few years is this country that for 30 years after ping took over,

it was trying to build up economic resources. what you have started to see in the last five years is this very powerful transition where china is now starting to think, now is our time, we should start influencing the way the world is run, we should start shaping the world. so they're pushing back in all important ways against the u.s., which has effectively been the dominant power since world war ii. >> well, we had just the larger historical frame, the cold war for the u.s. and the soviet union, and then now we have this multipolar world. are you sort of thinking what will happen now is we'll go back to bipolar arrangement with the u.s. and china? >> it is in some senses, but the difference in cold war, the u.s. won the cold war, because the soviet economy collapsed. it makes it a different competition. it's an older type of competition between great powers who can jostle with each other for power and influence. >> do you think military competition is in that --

obviously economic competition is a part of it. but military also? >> very much so. china has invested heavily in the military over the past two decades, particularly the navy. you can see the navy pushing back against the u.s. navy in the western pacific. so there will be squabbles over islands that seem obscure to people. these are part of a broader contest for control of the seas around china, that china is starting to push back strongly on. >> geoff, what are the signs that china has given that it wants to play more appropriately internationally, especially when it comes to their currency? >> well, the currency is one of the interesting issues where they're trying to make if a much more international currency. you talked about in terms of manipulating the rate to boost exports, so on and so fort. one of the things they've been trying to do is make the chinese currency, this international reserve currency, that can challenge the u.s. dollar. now, that's interesting for chinese companies, it has advantages, but it's a political objective there, which is to try and take away the power -- the dominant role the dollar has had

in the global economy. it's going to be hard for china, because the economy is enclosed within the tight capital controls that allows the party to control whole aspects of the financial system. if it's going to have an international currency, it will have to take down some of the powerful controls. >> you started by saying if the united states does the right things it can emerge still in its dominant position. what are the right things for the u.s. to do? >> there's definitely a military component to this. the u.s. needs to be firm but not too aggressive. it needs to push back when china is doing things potentially destabilizing but avoid cold war types arms buildup, that will stimulate china and alienate the allies. some of the ideas coming out of it has been a confrontational posture. it's important for the u.s., but also the region, to articulate a message, we see the long-term economic future being very much

linked to asia. that's where the potential for increasing exports and, you know, recovering manufacturing in this country, selling things to asia. that's an incredibly hard thing to sell in this country. trade is a dirty word. people think globalization has undermined the american jobs. it's a hard political message to sell. that's got to be crucial, because the u.s. can't be the country that has a couple of aircraft carriers that come in, but an economic message, too. >> the book titles it best, certainly about the concept we're all thinking, the contest of the century. geoff dyer, great to you have here. the best of late night coming your way next. we'll see you in a second. people ask the question, why is china so dominant in comparison to the united states? we try to provide some answers to this question, a little segment that we call -- >> announcer: why china is kicking our ass! >> reason number 933.

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♪ mr. president, you ready to move? >> absolutely.

let's do this thing. let's move. ♪ ♪ >> man. >> man, you're hard to keep up with. >> after a good workout, gotta drink up. >> all right. >> we're going to be in trouble with jill and michelle. >> same time next week? >> same time next week. >> all right. this is about -- i think this is about as fun as armed robbery gets. yesterday at an ampm in richland, california, a man wielding a handgun went into a store, pointed the gun at the clerk. now, the clerk, i don't know why

he does this, but he just grabs and wrestles it away from him, and then one of his co-workers comes in and slams him to the ground. [ cheers and applause ] we thought it might -- that clip might be even more fun if we added some wresing announcers to it. >> big joe trying to -- big man! and mark henry -- >> mark henry! [ cheers ] >> who says wrestling is fake? >> complete body slam there. all right. have you seen this? cincinnati traffic reporter bob herzog having a rough winter, and using the music of "frozen" to help express himself, to get him through it. ♪ ♪ the snow blows right on the roads overnight ♪ ♪ not a lane stripe to be seen a town with no transportation ♪

♪ and that info comes from me just don't go ♪ ♪ just don't go can't hold 'em back anymore ♪ ♪ just don't go just don't go ♪ ♪ going to stay with the 4x4 all the traction's gone ♪ ♪ schools are on a delay >> bill, why can't you be more like bob? >> i was going to say. bill karins would be awesome doing that. >> i could -- his voice was synthesized. >> auto tuned? >> he was britney'd. >> can you do that to foreigner's "cold as ice"? >> i'll do it, like, in a polar plunge speedo type deal. >> perfect. and we need it by monday. we need that by monday. >> i'll send it to you personally. >> thank you. appreciate it. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? stick around for that.

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hey, welcome back! >> it's time in the show, the kids call, what we learned today. thomas? >> i learned a lot about the oscars. and "gravity" is predicted to take best picture. >> i did not buy that. >> i think "12 years a slave." >> we'll see. what do we think?

>> that will win the best picture? i think "12 years a slave" but what i also learned is lewis, great for the 21st century. >> yes, i wish they would say that of me. rich? >> something to aspire for you. >> yeah, what exactly are you holding there? >> it's a flamingo which is the mass court to the volunteer fire company in mount gretna, pennsylvania. >> oh, they're great. mount gretna, pennsylvania. >> volunteer. isn't that cute? it's cuter than my dad's dog daisy, that's for sure. >> showing what i learned today was, actually, that mika is just like her father's dog, who looks awfully vicious there. >> rabid. >> the father compared mika to the dog. >> yes. >> gee, what did you learn? >> thank you. >> i learned that ukraine is complicated. >> yes, it is.

>> complicated, and even dr. brzezinski said it's complicated. >> it's complicated. >> if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." but, thomas, what happens to "morning joe"? >> "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. >> have a good weekend. god bless you. >> just a reminder, former singer of orleans, a member of congress. security check. an exclusive interview with homeland security jeh johnson on the likelihood of lone wolf attacks, the consequences of changing drug laws, plus a lot more. and with "american hustle" in the mix for sunday's oscar extravaganza, a behind-the-scenes look at the real abscam, real american hustle, and what some of the central players think decades later. also on today's tdr, find out how someone pushing for a pardon almost got a seat at the table with president obama